SOPHISTICATED WEDDINGS

Photos by Jessica Strickland

Katie Rappaport and James Strickland were married on June 6, 2020, at the Williams Creek home of the bride’s parents. Thanks to the pandemic, it was not the wedding ceremony the two had planned, which was to be held at Newfields with hundreds of guests. Instead, having left Brooklyn, New York, where Katie is a creative director for Conde Nast, and James, a former Naval pilot, is an investment banker with RBC Capital Markets, on March 17 to quarantine with Katie’s parents in Indianapolis, it soon became clear that the big wedding of their dreams was not to be.

Deciding to honor their original date, they assembled their respective immediate families (Katie grew up in Indianapolis and James in Tallahassee, Florida) for a backyard ceremony at the home of Katie’s parents. Having to forgo her original Monique Lhuillier wedding gown because the manufacturer was shut down due to the pandemic, Katie ordered a white dress online while friends back in Brooklyn mailed James a suit and tie since they’d left most of their clothing at home. Her wedding shoes, however, were the ones she had always planned to wear -- a pair of classic Salvatore Ferragamo block heels in honor of her grandmother, who wore the brand of shoes exclusively. “Whenever I looked down at my feet,” says Katie, “I was reminded of a fierce female from Bensonhurst, New York, who met an Indianapolis man and moved here for good.”

After the ceremony, Katie and James jumped on bikes for a “Just Married” celebratory tour around the Williams Creek neighborhood, with neighbors cheering, offering champagne toasts and throwing flower petals. Adds Katie, “These months back in Indianapolis have given us such an appreciation for this place. Who knows, we might just move here in the future. But in this current world, we've learned...it's good not to plan too far in advance... things just might not go according to plan but in the end, they always have the opportunity to end up better than we imagined.”